To Walk In Fates Garden
by Broken Mantra
Summary: KimiSaku:romancedark fic:Kimimaro never wanted to live in the darkness that enshrouded his entire existence, it seemed that was fate’s decision for him… until a drifting mimosa bloom changed it all and ushered in his rebirth into the thing he loved,light
1. Chapter 1

I Don't own Naruto, I borrow the characters for my own deviant purposes (cackles evilly)

Please Note- This will deviate from Canon dramatically. Mainly in three facets, Kimimaro is alive, Orochimaru has not yet taken possession of Sasuke's body, and Itachi is dead and has been for about 2 months…. Don't worry ladies and gents; Kabuto is still a nerdy bitch. Other than those factors, I will keep on with Canon as much as possible.

Without further adieu, this will be another multi-chap from me, and with the way I am, there's no telling how long this will be… so bear with me and enjoy the ride.

_**To Walk in Fate's Garden**_

_Chapter 1/Introduction__- A__ Mimosa…_

The hidden village of Sound could be called many things.

To some it was just another Shinobi Nation, to others it was an enemy, and to those who knew it well, it was Hell. All of these words could accurately describe the Village of Oto, however not in the opinion of one man.

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Soft foot falls echoed through the decrepit base of Oto. Foot falls taking the owner to a room he visited on a daily basis, for the sole purpose of maintaining his life.

Once opened the door, with a slow creak, revealed a sterile laboratory with a familiar man taking up residence at the overly neat stainless desk.

The white haired man pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and removed a clipboard from the stainless metal surface of his desk before he rose to greet his daily guest.

"Greetings Kimimaro. Are you feeling well today?" the man known as Yakushi Kabuto asked, feigning concern and sympathy for his guest's well being.

Kimimaro answered without words, and took his familiar spot at the very edge of the hospital bed. Kabuto placed his hand on Kimimaro's forehead, and sent his exploratory chakra into his skull in attempt to analyze the progression of the cancerous disease, which afflicted Kimimaro.

Much to Kabuto's dismay, Kimimaro was steadily deteriorating. Orochimaru had said numerous times that if Kabuto was unable to cure Kimimaro, he was an unfit follower. Kabuto took the man's constant sickness as a test from Orochimaru, which ultimately resulted in his pride being shattered and a severe reprimand from his leader.

Kimimaro locked eyes with Kabuto before he exhaled deeply so Kabuto could hear his lungs, followed by his heart as was customary in a normal check up. Long ago had Kimimaro given up hope of being cured to a state where he could serve his master in the way he thought fitting.

Many times, he had considered just surrendering his life in favor of Purgatory, Hell or Limbo, but something that couldn't be articulated into words kept him in the shadows he swore he would never return to.

Kimimaro was initially Orochimaru's third vessel, but that changed when his health began deteriorating. He blamed himself for his own shortcomings, he blamed himself for his sickness, and he blamed himself for failing the only person who had given him purpose in life.

This is not where Kaguya Kimimaro intended his life to be at the age of twenty-three. He could have almost bet he would be dead by now, either from his own body or in battle. It didn't matter to him anymore; every day just brought the same disheartening routine.

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As Kabuto continued with his examinations, Kimimaro came to a revelation.

No matter how much his heart desired to serve Orochimaru, there were two things in his way. His own body and his masters will. Orochimaru would never accept him as he did Sasuke because his body was weak, the only reason he was still living was due to the serums and elixirs of Kabuto's creation coursing through his system.

Kimimaro felt a profound weight in his chest, this weight he realized was the feeling of resignation.

This feeling reminded him so much of how he felt during his childhood, disposable and unnecessary.

Before Kabuto could continue injecting the clear liquid into the artery of Kimimaro's neck, Kimimaro stopped him and forced the syringe to be pulled free of his body.

Kabuto looked at the man, perplexity etched into his two sided features.

Kimimaro simply met his analytical gaze with a cold stare, completely devoid of emotion before he rose to his feet and pulled his robe over his shoulders.

As Kimimaro made his way to the exit of the sterile room, he was stopped by a question from Kabuto.

"What are you doing Kimimaro? You need to finish your treatment; if you don't… you know what will happen." Kabuto warned, with a slight lace of threatening tone on the edge.

Kimimaro proceeded out the door, unaffected by the double-sided concern.

"Tell your Sama I am going to die in peace." Kimimaro said coldly as he left the room, a thoroughly confused Medic-Nin in his wake.

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He made his way through the dark hallways to the only exit. He felt no alliance toward Orochimaru; he didn't need him now that he had the Uchiha. Kimimaro couldn't be upset that Orochimaru didn't need him. That had always been their silent understanding; that Kimimaro would serve Orochimaru until he lost his usefulness.

Thus his purpose fulfilled, he was unnecessary.

As he swung open the heavy iron door of the tomb of a village they call Oto, Kimimaro was greeted with the long forgotten warmth of the sun.

After several moments of heavy squinting and blinking, his pale green eyes acclimated to the obtrusive light. He found the light and the area outside Oto to be just as beautiful as the day he met the Kazekage in battle, the time he went out of his way to obtain that Uchiha.

He shook thoughts of the other man from his head. He had no reason to be jealous, other than the ingrate known as Uchiha Sasuke didn't intend to serve his master with all of his being. The thought that Kimimaro would willingly give Orochimaru his body as a vessel just as repayment for saving him from that sorrowful existence made him slightly ill. He would, but he couldn't. Sasuke could, but he wouldn't.

He figured this was one of the many reasons life was so beautiful to those who have experienced it. Those not like him, those people who could walk though the light on a day such as this, and not have the looming cloud of death hanging dangerously low overhead.

He stepped out of the pit, ascended the stairs, equating it to the beginning of his personal stairway to the afterlife, and began to walk, with no provisions, no idea where he was going, and no thought of when his last breath would be taken.

Among everything, he left to chance at this point; Kaguya Kimimaro was at an odd peace, because for the first time since he was able to call forth memory, this was the only thing he had done for himself.

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He walked for hours, and those hours turned to days. Every step he took drug a searing pain though his body like a flaming whip. He knew his end was close. He didn't know where he was. He didn't care, and he didn't want to live. The truth was, Kimimaro hadn't wanted to live for some years now.

Night hung over the young man, the moon offering its only bit of light to the now collapsed form of Kaguya Kimimaro. The lush leaves of the green foliage swayed in the cool night breeze, creating a moving boarder for the moon. An utterly beautiful sight.

Kimimaro breathed in and out slowly and steadily, he wanted to see this night for as long as he could. He was gracious to whomever or whatever allowed him to see this sight for his last memory of living.

After a few hours, the pain grew intense. Every breath he took felt like his shoulders were ripping apart and his chest was caving. No matter how badly he hurt, he kept focusing on the steadily clouding sky.

When the severe pain breeched the point to where he had to interrupt his observation of the beautiful night, he felt a cold drop of rain on his forehead. The shock of the rain kept him from passing out from the stress.

Minutes later, the now pouring rain could not keep the looming unconsciousness at bay. With his last vision being a lone mimosa bloom dancing dangerously close to his face, he gave in to the blackness he hated with all his heart but was bound to. This was not the nature in his heart, he was not an evil man, but he wouldn't be repenting to anyone in his last moments.

The only person he needed to forgive was himself.

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The Anbu retrieval squad made their way efficiently to the border of the Village of Sound. Their primary objective: Detain Uchiha Sasuke by any means necessary.

The village of Konoha sent their Anbu in prepared for a war. The blatant treachery of the last living Uchiha couldn't go unnoticed any longer, he compromised the lives of Leaf Shinobi who posed no threat to the man, for that… the price was death and the current Kage, Tsunade was far finished with trying to bide the man time for his conscious to kick in.

She dispatched Anbu in three man squads, in random intervals and sent word to others squadrons in all the allied countries to converge on Sound and dispose of everything that is and had been in the base.

Haruno Sakura had long gotten over her feelings for the ever emotionally impotent Sasuke.

She had come to the realization that there was life to be lived beyond the memories of vengeance, and a sea of caskets; she couldn't bear that thought, to live by choice in such an admittedly wretched memory... Perhaps it made her weak, she was indifferent to it all now, she understood that he would never be able to reciprocate her love (or what she had once coined 'love) and she made peace with this, and actually welcomed the man's impending death.

The first member of her squad, Kiba, or the 'wolf', as they were referred to when given Anbu assignments, was patrolling the area fifty meters away from her, stationed in the middle, with Chouji stationed fifty meters behind her guarding the rear.

They key to the infiltration of Sound was simple, keep the flow of chakra steady and don't let it fluxuate, an easy task to undertake when the members of a squad were separated out.

Kiba came to a quick halt. The other two-squad members took note of this and stopped in their tracks as well, quietly the intercom squeaked out.

"I think there is a wounded shinobi ahead… Sakura you circle round so you can take front and check it out… Over." Kiba's voice directed, he was an incredibly good leader, almost as proficient as Shikamaru, but Kiba had a lack of planning which was both his downfall and his curse.

Doing as she was told by 'wolf', she circled around Kiba carefully, and assumed the position of front scout, immediately she felt the rush of strong yet depleting chakra, and the subtle essence of life slipping from the shinobi approximately 60 meters ahead.

"Pick it up guys; we've got to get there stat." Sakura ordered before sending her chakra pumping though her feet in efforts to reach the wounded in time, even though she had seen many die, she always felt personally responsible, and never failed to hold herself accountable.

Tsunade had once told her. _"That's your nature__ as a medic, you'll __be__come__ numb in tim__e__ so you can sleep with an easy conscious__"_ It had been eight years since her tutelage began, and not even a cell of hers was numb to knowing another's life slipped through her oddly misleading fingers.

Sometimes the most crippling handicap someone can receive is praise.

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There were other cells of Anbu on the direct route to Sound, so the slight deviation would have no repercussions. At her last calculation, she figured the first three quarters of the entire force was converging on Sound now, even if they used all the chakra they wanted to, it wouldn't give them away to the enemy for one simple reason: it was too late.

When Sakura reached a tree shielded clearing, she took note of the pale and seemingly lifeless body lying in the dewy night grass.

The deeply engrained medic within her assumed control of the situation as she rushed to the sickeningly still body, she brought her fingertips to his forehead, taking note of two small red circles above each of his eyebrows. The man didn't look familiar, and she would have remembered someone who had red markings seemingly everywhere on his face.

One thing she did take note of was the operates robe of a lavender color, tied with the traditional Obi indicative that this man was of Oto. Filing the information away in her mind for later, she touched his forehead, and sent her chakra through his system carefully.

She didn't know what exactly afflicted the man, he was still living although barely, but whatever the scourge was, it was racking his nervous system so severely it interrupted his respiratory system.

Now she knew the urgency of the man's situation. Raising her fingers to the com-piece, she advised her leader of the plan of action she would be taking.

"Wolf, I'm abandoning mission. This man is far too ill to be treated in field; he may also have information on Sound. It is my suggestion, as second in command, that we return to Konoha, and leave this to the other cells." Sakura said, her mind already made up, though she communicated with her superior per protocol.

She was able to manipulate the larger man's dead weight in such a way he was draped lifelessly over her back.

Once she had him in a controlled and stable position, she traveled at a break neck pace to Konoha. If her estimates were correct, and they usually were, this man had a little over six hours to reverse the already severe damage… Of those six hours, four would be spent traveling at even this pace.

The thought of another life slipping through her hands, was something she could not cope with, and something she didn't crave. She would deal with whatever punishments were to be had for S-Ranked mission abandonment when the time came. For now, her Medic persona was in control, until the threat to the man passed.

(A/N: So that's the first chapter, please let me know what you think… Let's thank Jayanx for her consistently great beta-ing abilities… As always, reviews are appreciated and encouraged. I know this deviates from Canon quite a bit, but I'm excited about this and I hope you like it, reviews make me update faster… hint hint... Until Next Time…)


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: I own the contents of my apartment, and my car… and last time I checked, I didn't own Naruto.**

_Warnings: This is a mature and very dark chapter. If you can't drive a car or buy cigarettes you shouldn't read this. Warnings for blood and suggestive adult situations (no citrus…)_

Chapter 2

"Sakura… Location?" Kiba's voice came over the com-link.

"Moving south toward village gates, ending transmission." She replied as she shut her earpiece off. She didn't need to be distracted from her course. She had very little time as it was, and could not afford to be stalled for even a moment.

She moved deftly through the trees, the cool rain doing nothing to thwart her procession home.

She and the unidentified man were inching closer and closer to her only hope of saving his life. The fact he was an enemy shinobi, in all fairness, was not a matter of great import. She understood that beneath alliances, treaties, and affiliations they were all just humans, and it was human nature to strive to become better tomorrow than you were today.

She figured another redeeming quality would be that the man, currently slung across her small back, would be able to divulge the inner secrets of Oto. She had seen the way most of the commoners in Oto appeared. They weren't really commoners; they were the prisoners and the victims of the bastard Snake Sannin's wrath, or mere toys to be disposed of when ever the whim was felt.

From the way the pale man was dressed, it suggested he was treated significantly better than the more unfortunate of the Oto civilians. Therefore, she deduced, he must have been a higher-ranking officer, if Oto even bothered to issue ranks among them. From what intelligence they've gathered, it was determined that the Hidden Village of Sound operated much like a band of Rogues, the only difference being there was one uniform body doling out the orders.

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For being in the ranks of the strongest Ninja ever to walk the surface of the shinobi nations, for the most part Sound was completely thrown off guard.

The onslaught of Anbu commenced their attack at dusk. Like a nuclear bomb, the residents of Sound felt and immense influx of chakra surrounding them and converging closer to the base.

For their unpreparedness, they had no reason to be as arrogant as they were. They sent the commoners and shinobi of lower skill out to dispose of the problem. To much of their dismay, their first fleet was entirely annihilated in less than three minutes. The Anbu of Konoha not wasting a single move, not exerting an unnecessary amount of anything, they had everything perfectly controlled and orchestrated.

With a swift circling hand motion, the main leader, clad in a ram's mask signaled the under officers to prepare to infiltrate. The officers in turn readied their four man cells, and when the signal from the ram came in the form an unsheathed katana, the horde of Anbu followed suit and deftly entered Sound through the only door.

They had borderline barbaric orders, and those orders were so crucial the Hokage herself advised there should be no morality on this mission. She advised their primary objective was to assassinate the traitors, Uchiha Sasuke and Yakushi Kabuto as well as the Cult leader, Orochimaru. There was also to be no mercy for the other unknown inhabitants of Sound.

After the base was cleared, they had orders to plant over fifty remote detonated C-4 explosives within the base, exit and detonate.

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As the mass of Anbu entered and dispersed through the base of Oto, the most difficult part of being a shinobi was being realized by many men and women as the blood of what appeared to be prisoners who fought to defend the tyrant Orochimaru stained their black clothing. All of them silently grateful they couldn't see the blood on their fully clothed form. It didn't matter if they couldn't see it, they would know it was there, and it would always be.

The majority of Konoha Anbu had never experienced anything as horrifying as what was unfolding before their eyes at this moment.

Their eyes had found victims of brutal experimentation that bordered on inhumane. Most of these subjects left severely mutilated and in an excruciating amount of pain.

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The ram led the mass of operatives through the base. What he would encounter would change his life in a most profound way.

The Ram opened the door to a room near the back of the far right corridor. What this door revealed chilled the normally carefree man.

Bound to a chair was a teen of no more than sixteen. His head hung low toward his lap as his upper body fell as far away from the chair as the restraints would allow.

Shikamaru brought his search light to the form of the man slumping against the chair. What he saw nearly made him speechless.

The man had several IV's jammed into his arms and neck, automatically pumping an unknown substance into the man's system. Shikamaru then took note of the random markings traveling over his shirtless torso and arms.

He made his way over to the captive and just as he was about to extend his hand to shake the man into consciousness, his eyes met with the pale, bound man's entirely black eyes. Startled, Shikamaru drew his hand back.

"We're here to help you. You'll be fine now," Shikamaru said, now reaching for the first IV, he intended to remove. The man jerked away from him violently, a dull anxiety present in his black eyes.

"Let me die" He said, voice harsh and desperate. Shikamaru had always heard people begging for their lives to be spared, never had he encountered someone whom so openly ushered death into their arms.

"We can help you." Shikamaru continued, trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince the man. At this point, Shikamaru was not operating at 200 moves ahead.

The man shook his head vehemently, the first exhibition the man was able to move more than his neck in a back and forth motion.

"Let me die, I've no reason to live." The man said a cold settling into his eyes that equated pain and long-suffering. The man's honesty in his eyes was almost too much for Shikamaru to bear. The words he kept repeating were difficult to hear, but what made them unbearable was the sincerity of it all.

"Sir I can't kill you." Shikamaru said, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt for not being able to grant the man the one thing he desired, the he figured he would feel guilty either way.

"Then cut me free, give me your short blade or kunai and leave me in peace." He pleaded.

Shikamaru knew the man, whether saved or not would end his life eventually, and with that, he gave in to the man's request. He removed his spare kunai from his pouch and swung it into ready position as he made his way to the chair.

He cut the man free of his bindings causing his limp form to fall on Shikamaru's upper body. He grabbed the man to steady him to a position where he could sit on the floor, he was sure he had enough of that chair to last him a lifetime.

The man leaned against the chair, his dark brown hair hanging in his eyes. This time when he looked back up at Shikamaru, he had a light smile on his face and his constitution seemed stronger.

Shikamaru rose to his feet prepared to leave the room and hope the man forgot about killing himself but his weak voice crept through the dark room.

"Your kunai please. I would hate to see my unholy blood stain the hands of such a good willed person." He said with a weak smile on his face. Shikamaru's heart caught in his throat, it was true this was an enemy shinobi, but he had to reason that he didn't want to be here, and a reason far more complicated than even the proven genius could comprehend.

His orders resurfaced into his mind, and he slowly handed the kunai to the sitting man. He stood there waiting for the man to change his mind and give it back. What the man did, took him off guard once more.

"_Om Mani Padme Hum" _the man murmured with his eyes closed as he allowed his fingers to trace the cold metal of the kunai.

Shikamaru understood the man would follow though with his intentions. It was evident in his eyes, even when they first met was something he coveted greatly. Shikamaru couldn't even begin to comprehend the kind of torment the man had been through.

As Shikamaru left the room, he turned to the man and offered his parting words.

"I wish you peace now that you didn't have in life" He walked out the door and made it exactly eight steps out of the door when the sick silence of the Sound base was disrupted with a heavy thud emitting from the room.

Shikamaru looked back to the man in the room from the open hallway and found his form face down on the ground with a crimson sea coming from his neck and spilling onto the cold stone flooring.

A piece of Nara Shikamaru died with that unknown man.

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Uchiha Sasuke's death hadn't been a valiant one because he didn't deserve it. A man who puts the dead before the living, and hate before love can't expect a departure worthy of a true warrior.

The man who claimed his twisted life had been none other than his best friend, whom he'd forsaken in his diluted pursuit of vengeance, Uzumaki Naruto.

Much to Sasuke's surprise, he saw Naruto fought with a kind of grace and technicality that he hadn't expected. The man had also grown exponentially stronger over the years, and countered every offensive move the Sharingan wielder dealt with a move twice as severe.

After Sasuke's ego went on overdrive, because some things don't change over the years and he still believed that he could best Naruto, he grossly miscalculated the speed Naruto was approaching him with. He was able to counter at the last second, but Naruto spun to his right and ended up behind his former friend, kunai ready and at his jugular.

"I'm sorry friend…" Naruto said with a heavy heart as the cold steel tore through his peer's flesh. The Sharingan legacy had died at Uzumaki Naruto's feet.

Thoroughly disgusted and distraught over the loss of the one person he wanted so desperately to save; Naruto turned around and heaved onto the grey floor, tears forming in his eyes.

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With the hate that Hatake Kakashi had reserved in his heart for Orochimaru, he valiantly battled the snake Sannin.

To say this was easy for him would be a lie.

Orochimaru was the man responsible for the havoc that seemed to tear everyone in Konoha to shreds, taking husbands from their wives and children, and taking teachers from their students.

Orochimaru had been besting Kakashi for the majority of their battle, the turning point, and ultimate end of it was a last ditch effort of his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Kakashi had been pinned to the floor with one of the Sannin's' snake-esque katanas through his shoulder. When he opened his eyes, he could see the second blade coming at an incomprehensible speed toward his heart.

He didn't realize when his eyes were first open; the sannin was looking directly in them. Bracing for the second impact of cold steel just in case, he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Kami was looking down on him that day because slowly the snake sannin was pulled into another dimension.

Kakashi got up from the ground and started toward the door, taking the last remnant of the scourge Orochimaru, his earring, with him.

-----

Kabuto had turned himself in and promised to go peacefully in exchange for his life. His request wasn't granted, and he was executed in the examination room, that had been a second home to a lost man.

With the C-4's planted in their mapped locations, the Anbu fled from the base and traveled out of the blast's approximate vicinity. Once all the Anbu were back and accounted for, the ram hit the remote, thinking of the one man he knew was allowed to die in peace.

The Anbu members looked from one another, taking note of the now visible gore on their uniforms. Something told them all, the gore would come off and the uniforms would appear new again, but those mental stains would always remain.

The detonation of sound was beautiful, embers drifting into the midnight blue sky, joining the stars but most of all it signified the end of an era of terror and of pain. The Anbu took in the sight they would most likely tell their children about, just as their parents told them the tale of the nine-tailed fox. Both would be stories that would need to continue to be shared so the future generations won't forget the mistakes of the past.

"Report back, Mission successful," the ram stated sending a rush of Anbu in the direction of Konoha, all of them eager to tell their Kage of their success but equally guilty for the pride they had.

-----

Sakura was within minutes of the gate. From her observations, the man seemed to be as stable as he had been when she came across him in the clearing.

When she entered the gate, she was greeted by the questioning gaze of the guardsmen.

"Medical Emergency" She said, not stopping to check herself in as was normal protocol.

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When they arrived at the hospital, she threw open the door with one hand and made her way toward her normal procedural room.

She laid the man on the bed gently, and pulled the loose robe down his arms. She pulled her hair into a tight knot, and placed her ear directly over the man's heart. She took in its rhythm, steady but incredibly slow and strained.

She reached into her medic Pac, and removed a small examinational flashlight. She opened his eyes one by one, and shone the light into them, observing the way the corneas dilated and receded. The reaction was slow, so it had to be something affecting his brain. It could be anything from a concussion to a tumor.

She placed both her hands on the opposite sides of his head, and sent her chakra into his system for the second time. Just like the last time, she could tell something was effecting his respiratory and circulatory systems.

She quickly concluded she didn't have the experience for this kind of thing. She was an extremely skilled medic, but she wouldn't let this man die on her table now over an issue she had with her pride.

"Nurse!" Sakura screamed. Almost instantaneously, a white clad nurse entered the room with a panicked expression on her face.

"Get me Tsunade right now!" She said, relaying the urgency of the situation through her eyes. The woman dashed out of the room, intent on her mission.

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Sakura sent more of her chakra into the man's mind, as she began subconsciously stroking the sides of his face with her thumbs. Thinking it would relax a patient if they were awake, it could be comforting to a sleeping patient as well.

"Hang in there…" she said as she pumped a bit more of her chakra into his body when she felt it begin to wax and wane. They had already come this far, there was no way she was going to let him die on her now.

(A/N: The quote: "_Om Mani Padme Hum" _is actually a Buddhist mantra, in case you were worried about it. So that's another one. I must say that I have the most fun writing the dark stuff. It seriously came out like second nature… Anyway, thanks for reading, I know this is among the most crack of crack pairings but I enjoy it. Please read and review to let me know what you think… BTW- please don't flame me for killing off Sasuke, I don't tell you how to write your stories now do I? I hope you enjoyed it! and Do thank Jayanx for her incredible Beta-ing abilities )


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: I didn't own Naruto the last chapter, so I don't own it now.**

_**Chapter 3**_

She kept her hands on his head, continuing her flow of chakra though the frontal lobe of his brain. She thought if she was perhaps able to keep the man subconsciously calm with her chakra, she could prod a little further into his mind and see where the real damage was.

At this point in time, it was to keep him steady until Tsunade arrived. Tsunade had the invaluable experience that Sakura lacked, and if anyone would be able to help the man, it would be her Shishou.

With her chakra continuously weaving through his brain, taking careful note of the ebb and flow of everything from his blood to his neurons, she was able to take in the features of the man and see if she couldn't place a name to his face. He was a ninja of Sound, and Konoha had intricate records of the shinobi of Oto they had encountered.

No matter how hard she searched her own memory banks, she could find nothing of note to relate to the patient occupying her table. This man had white hair, not blonde, but white, a lean but muscular build that vaguely reminded her of the build Kakashi had.

The lone mark at the apex of his collarbone made her physically ill; she knew the significance of those three lines, and a thing as simple as three lines made her stomach drop, heavy with memories of the encounter with the Snake Sannin Orochimaru in the Forest of Death.

In her mind, it seemed so contradictory to have a man so pale, so devoid of color to have a disgusting mark so black mar him permanently.

She absently wondered what reason this man had to sell his soul to the devil that walked the earth.

She then thought about the other members of Anbu, and if they had been successful in their raid. She knew that with Naruto, Shikamaru, and Neji headlining the horde, success would be all but guaranteed. She did worry that Naruto would be unable to fulfill his duty as Anbu when it came to Sasuke.

She had tried desperately to get Naruto to understand that Sasuke was not the same man who they had loved like a surrogate brother in their younger days. As horrible as she felt to admit it, she imagined a set of shackles would be freed of her when Sasuke's blood was spilled. She honestly believed that as long as he was alive a part of her would remain tied down and bonded to his darkness.

In her mind, everything was justified. He fulfilled his vow of vengeance, which in the end, was all he cared about in the first place. Since she had met the man, he'd coveted nothing but power, nothing but the things in life when obtained in excess would destroy you. This is why she was at peace with his impending, if not already realized death. A bit of her heart felt remorse for the man, but he had forsaken all of those they had once held close in the worst of ways, and for that, she would never forgive him.

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"Lady Tsunade!" A young nurse exclaimed as she threw open the door to the Hokage's office. As of late, with the impending infiltration of Oto, Tsunade had taken up sleeping in the Hokage quarters if there was ever a state of emergency.

At the interruption from the Nurse, Tsunade sat up from her reclined position on the couch and met the younger girl with a gaze that equated the severe consequences should the reason she was disturbed not be an emergency.

Without fear, the girl moved forward to the Kage and began to plead her case to her elder.

"Sakura-san is treating a patient in her procedural room, she needs your assistance. From the way she was acting, it seemed like she thought he was going to die." The nurse said, trying to make the argument brief so action could be taken.

Without a second question, the blonde Kage stood up and was on her way out of the room while pulling her green yukata over her tank top.

----

Tsunade knew that if Sakura couldn't handle a situation, it meant that she didn't understand enough of what was going on to administer proper procedure without her guidance.

She knew that she made the right choice in her apprentice though it had been a close call between Sakura and the Yamanaka girl. What secured Sakura's success in the end was her attitude, she reminded her so much of herself and it almost haunted her really how incredibly similar their team was to her former team. It struck her as highly ironic, the other two of her team mates mentored Sakura's other two team mates.

In no time, Tsunade was in Sakura's procedural room. She took note of Sakura's hair pulled back in her 'no nonsense' knot and knew the situation must be drastic; usually she managed to clip her hair up or fasten it with a pencil.

She walked up behind Sakura's hunched over form and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before she greeted her.

"What's going on?" Tsunade asked. Sakura turned around and broke her administration of chakra to her patient to address the elder medic.

"This man is suffering from something in his brain that is affecting his respiratory and circulatory systems, I don't know what it is, and I've never seen anything like it in my life." Sakura said, as she stepped back and allowed the Hokage to take her former position.

Tsunade looked down at the young man, she realized immediately whom this man was, and the marks on his face gave it all away. This young man was of the Kaguya blood line, and at her last knowledge, that bloodline had been eradicated in Mist.

She looked to Sakura who had an expression of genuine concern etched across her features before she directed her attention to the man once more. She readied her hand to put it on his forehead, but stopped when she realized what the garb he was clad in signified. Not only was this man a Kaguya, he was a shinobi of Sound, and above all, of that, he was a self professed lap dog of Orochimaru.

Tsunade jerked her hand back before she could get any closer before she turned her head at a speed that could have broken one's neck.

"Why did you bring him here? You heard my orders damn it! Do you have any idea who this is and how dangerous this man is?!" Tsunade boomed, causing Sakura to flinch at the suddenness of the outburst. She didn't know who this man was; all she saw was a man who needed help desperately, surely Tsunade would understand that is what she trained her to do.

"I don't know who this man is, but he was about ten miles from Sound when I came across him collapsed in a clearing. He needs help, Tsunade that's why I brought him here. Now will you help me or will I try and save him alone and be tried for contempt and assisting a threat to the village?" Sakura spat, sometimes she and her Shishou were too much alike.

Tsunade recoiled slightly before exhaling and looking at her apprentice with a softer expression. She couldn't be angry with Sakura for doing something she would have done. An interesting note stuck out to Tsunade, why was this man who served Orochimaru so religiously ten miles from Sound unarmed by the looks of things?

Tsunade placed her hand on the man's forehead and sent her own chakra into his brain to analyze things. Upon her first few moments within the confines of the man's mind, she found a cluster of cells that were slowing deteriorating in the brainstem.

Even Tsunade, the most skilled medic walking any of the shinobi nations paled at this realization.

She turned to Sakura with a somber expression on her face, and she knew Sakura would understand this because this wouldn't have been the first time they had been faced with a disease akin to the one manifesting in the patient on the table.

"What do you think? I thought it was something in his frontal lobe." Sakura stated, trying to gain as much experience from the situation as she was able to.

Tsunade simply shook her head before replying to her skilled apprentice. She was impressed; the brain always proved to be the most complicated to understand.

"No Sakura, it's a cluster of deteriorating cells in the brainstem. From the looks of it, he's been receiving medical treatment for this for some time. However, it appears only to have been a temporary fix and has damaged the veins in his jugular and pulmonary arteries. Whoever did this, and I'm assuming Kabuto, had no idea what they were doing." Tsunade said, visibly calmer and now in a mode to administer treatment.

"So what do we do from here? My experience is lacking in cerebral treatments." Sakura admitted.

Tsunade smirked at her student and gestured for her to take post at the other side of the bed. Tsunade pulled her own hair back into a long ponytail with elastic she had around her wrist before she responded to her student.

"Well Sakura my dear, we get cracking. It's going to be a long night and possibly day, maybe even another night, so get that nurse Yura and tell her she's to assist us until she is dismissed." Tsunade said as she left the man's side to gather her own equipment consisting of a metal tray laden with scalpels, lancets, and clamps.

Sakura grinned at her mentor and left the room in a hurry to find Yura.

---

The fleet of Anbu steadily made their way back to Konoha. The gravity of what they had just been though weighing heavily on each of them. As a whole, they had experienced things such as this on a seemingly daily basis; something on this raid scarred them severely.

Friends had slain their old friends.

The innocent had died at their hands as a collective.

Anbu were injured severely, though none were killed.

These things made Shikamaru wonder to what lengths they would all go through for the glory of their country and the orders of the Kage. Was the price they were all paying at this juncture in time worth the scarring and strain they had all been through?

Out of the corner of his eye, he observed Ino rubbing her hands together as if she was washing them the entire time they were traveling. He knew she was a delicate girl, a reason he loved her, and to see her so distraught, and so lost made the strings of his heart jerk. Even when they were genin, he would try to make sure she was as shielded from evil as she could be, he'd never tell her any of that because she would become irate and spew nonsense about how she was a perfectly capable Kunoichi and that would be troublesome.

The gates of Konoha drew ever closer in their line of sight, some of the Anbu were thrilled to see it, others were indifferent, and most were too shocked to even realize they were moving in the first place.

Shikamaru was the first of the Anbu to enter the gates, immediately he took off his mask and set it on the ground along with his bag. He stopped Ino as she made her way past him by grabbing her shoulders gently and placing her directly in front of himself.

Under his strong hands, he could feel her trembling. He had begged Tsunade not to send her, but she did anyway, and for that Shikamaru felt guilty, he wasn't able to shield her from the most profound evil even he had encountered.

He gently lifted the mask from her face to reveal her normally amethyst blue eyes cast in a sea of blood shot veins. He could see the heavy tear streaks running down her face and her lip quivering as more tears traveled toward the earth.

His heart wrenched at the sight of the woman he loved in such a dismal state. He could tell she was doing her best to keep from sobbing and going into hysterics.

He moved his hand from her shoulder to the back of her head and brought her closer to his chest. Almost immediately, she broke into and uncontrollable sob, so sincere even a tear found it's way to his eyes.

He held her there for some time, trying to be her rock when she needed it, like he promised her he'd be. She clenched his shirt tighter as she trembled more violently. From her broken sobs and gaping breaths, she was able to speak.

"There… there was a child… and Oh my God! ... How could they do that to a kid, experiment and do cruel things to… just a little kid… not even old enough to be in the academy… Oh My God, I tried so hard Shika, I really did and he just wouldn't respond… and I tried and tried and told him I'd get him anything he wanted if he just was okay… you know what he said Shika?" Ino sobbed out, the memory that haunted her now being shared with the man she loved. A part of her needed to relive it to comprehend if the encounter truly happened or not.

Her account was almost as horrifying as what he had been through. She had tried to save a person's life while he had been the catalyst and offered him the chariot to his own demise.

"What did he say Ino?" Shikamaru asked, almost dreading the words that would be falling from her lips, he knew she needed to share this with him to heal, that was her way of coping.

Ino choked back a sob and trembled before moving away from him enough to look him in the face. A pained smile played across her face and dullness settled into her normally clear eyes before she replied.

"He wanted me to hold his hand and tell him a bedtime story… I told him the one my mother told me when I was little, ya know the one about the feudal princess and the common prince. I know it's not something a boy would like but that's all I could remember… He lie in my lap and fell asleep while I stroked his hair, I didn't even realize my tears were falling on him until he woke up and told me that it was okay because he wanted to be happy with his family again… My God it was so wrong Shika, so wrong." She said shaking her head vehemently.

Shikamaru brought her in full contact with his body and held her head close to his chest as he told her the words they both desperately needed to hear.

"Let's go home Ino… I'll make you some hot chocolate." He said.

She didn't respond, she just leaned further into his body, trying to convince herself that today was just a bad nightmare and when she woke up next to Shika tomorrow, everything would be fine.

-----

Sakura appeared with Yura roughly five minutes after Tsunade sent her.

She resumed her position at the side of the bed opposite Tsunade and both women were now clad in their surgical garb. Yura prepared a tray of utensils for Sakura and set them on a stand at her side. Sakura went through the mental checklist in her mind making sure every probable utensil was on that tray.

She was shaken from her inner's checklist by the soft voice of her mentor.

"This will be both a chakra administered, and invasive procedure. The patent has a portion of his brain stem in a deteriorating state; this section must be removed invasively and replaced with a chakra melding jutsu. Following the success of the first procedure, we'll need to regraft the jugular vein as it's currently weakened. This will be the most complex procedure you've done to date; it will take a copious amount of time. Do you understand the objectives?" Tsunade briefed.

Sakura hung on every one of her elder's words, she understood the two primary objectives, and due to the intricacy of both procedures, there could also be other things that need to be repaired. Sakura shook her head in affirmation.

"Good! Now let's get him turned over. We'll be going in through the neck." Tsunade said as each of the three women easily moved the patient onto his stomach.

The nurse further disrobed the man, leaving him bare before placing a hospital gown around his waist. The women present in the room had long gotten over being shy when it came to the human anatomy.

Sakura prepped the unknown man's neck for surgery. She tied his white hair back with a rubber band and shaved the finer hairs from his neck leaving the skin hairless. She then applied the iodine to the area where the incision would be.

"Patient prepped for surgery" Sakura notified Tsunade that they were now able to move on with the surgery.

Upon hearing Sakura's 'all clear', Tsunade brandished a small scalpel from her tray of utensils and drew the blade in a single clean line roughly four inches in length down the man's skin. He bled normally which was a good sign.

----

Fourteen hours later, the surgery was over. The man's brain stem had been repaired as well as his vein, the operation was a success.

The pale man lay in the recovery wing under the careful supervision of one of the head doctors, Sakura Haruno.

After the extensive operation that claimed a bit of pink hair on her head in favor of grey, she decided to keep an eye on the patient as the surgeries dealing with the brain and spinal cord are the most strenuous.

She kept watch over him. Consistently monitoring his vitals, changing his IV's when they were running low, and administering his medication. She sat and pondered on this man, Tsunade advised this was one of Orochimaru's most prized possessions for lack of a better word, Kaguya Kimimaro. Tsunade also went into a brief explanation of what was known of his past, which didn't range much beyond the extermination of his family, by their own pride.

She wondered, what on earth would make a person want to serve a man such as Orochimaru. Then Sasuke came to mind, he quested for power. Then Kabuto came to mind, and he coveted influence.

What could he have possibly gained by pledging himself to Orochimaru? As much as she pondered on the reasons he did, she couldn't wrap her mind around it. Perhaps it wasn't for her to understand, but then again things she couldn't grasp always intrigued her.

She watched the steady rise and fall of the man known as Kimimaro's chest, and she resolved that she'd just have to figure out why.

(Okay, so that was round three… I don't know why but the dark just oozes out of me. Well, let me know what you thought in a review, and with more reviews come faster updates! Thank you all for reading the most crack, of crack pairings… It will get better (but still dark) shortly.)


	4. Chapter 4

_**Still Don't own Naruto, but what's new?**__** Motivation for this chapter came from a mix of industrial rock I was listening to (Deadsy, Orgy, The Birthday Massacr**__**e and Him**__**) Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited and alerted this fic, you all make my heart smile.**_

**Chapter 4**

Sakura sat with the man well into the twilight hours before she lulled herself to sleep in a standard chair next to his bedside.

She dreamt of strange things, things that hadn't necessarily crossed her mind before. Things such as the tone of his voice, the expressions his eyes would tell, if any, and the natural gait the man had. All of these things, she unconsciously pulled together to make an animate model of him in her mind.

She often did this with her patients she was operating on, trying to give them a life with her inner person while the outer dealt with the prospect of more blood staining their hands. Through her years of medicine, she had gotten pretty good at this, what she deemed a 'game'. but that game had never dared invade her dreams

She imagined His voice thick and low, but slightly eerie. In her mind, his eyes were clear and rarely showed any kind of emotion, though the other men in her life may have influenced it. His gait, she dreamed that he moved with a gentle kind of grace, for what reason she could not figure out.

The Kimimaro in her dreams was reserved, quiet, and long suffering. This conclusion came from the way she found him in the clearing, at that time he had evidently given up on life.

Then a profound question came into her dreams.

Did he even want to live at all? Who was she to take a man's gift of death? The Kimimaro in her dreams became irate and told her the tales he'd lived through in his life and how death was his only opportunity at peace. The voice emanating in her dreams was significantly different from the gentle softness of his ulterior persona.

---

A single ray of delicate sunlight peered through the sheer curtains of the sterile hospital room. The sudden contrast in darkness to light brought Kimimaro into a conscious state.

Very carefully, he opened his eyes and took in his surroundings of nothing but white. For a moment, he thought he was damned to purgatory but that was dismissed when he felt his chest rise and fall of its own accord.

He couldn't grasp the concept that he was among the living. He had been in such a profound state of pain at his last memory, to think it was just a 'spell' made no sense to him.

He attempted to move his head to take in more of the room when a sharp discomfort ripped through his neck. He immediately brought his hand to the back of his neck and felt it encased in heavy padding and gauze. He would have been shaken from the realization had he already understood what was going on.

He tried to sit up before a pained grunt left his harsh and raw throat.

He took note of another presence in the room and immediately readied himself for an altercation. He lay perfectly still as a young woman came into his line of sight and was now hovering near his body. He couldn't help but let his eyebrow quirk in surprise at the unexpected guest.

"You should absolutely NOT be moving, if you need something, let me know and I'll get it for you. Kay?" The sickeningly sweet voice said. He couldn't help but stare at her; he'd never seen a woman so overtly loud and feminine.

Her clear emerald eyes held a nearly sincere concerned expression, evidence she was indeed a tangible being.

"Where am I?" He asked in a gentle monotone. So far, her idealistic image of him had been correct.

She smiled brightly before she replied to his query.

"You're in Konoha. I found you in a clearing… You were almost dead..." she trailed off, averting her gaze to the white tile flooring while a troubled exterior spread across her pale face.

Kimimaro was even more confused than he had been upon the discovery of the gauze.

Had this woman been his… his savior?

His careful mind began taking inventory of the normal pains and aches he experienced daily and found them all to be… receding. Another fact he was unable to comprehend, for so long the thought of life immediately brought pain.

Without his mind's consent, he gave her a questioning gaze as if asking her to further elaborate on the happenings that occurred when he was found in the clearing until this moment.

Understanding the meaning in his eyes, another thing she had been correct in her assumptions of, she cleared her throat and further elaborated.

"I took you back to Konoha, where the Hokage and I administered treatment to repair the damage in your brain stem and conducted jugular grafting. You're now in the recovery wing of the Hospital." She said, still maintaining her calm and warming demeanor.

She sat back into her chair and smiled warmly once she was sure he would not try to move.

Her actions confused him even further; apparently, it etched across his face as a light laugh came from her mouth.

"I was completely right." She said as she rose from the chair and made her way to the series of sterile white cabinets across the room.

While she was picking up the premeasured medications, she continued.

"You are exactly how I thought you'd be, voice and all, it's a game I play with my patients… Don't know why just picked it up one day" she shared while allowing a lighthearted laugh to leave her once more.

She made her way to him and sat the pill cup on the nightstand near the bed before she gently moved her hands behind his back and head, taking him in an innocent embrace, just enough to get him to a sitting position.

Too startled with the proximity of the woman, he merely obliged as he entered a sitting position, taking in her presence with just enough clarity to notice the faint scent of her hair.

Her scent reminded him of the day Orochimaru found him and offered him a purpose. That was it. He had an epiphany: he was alive now but he was missing purpose, and he suddenly grew angry at the realization and felt his eyes grow cold and his exterior stiffen.

Her face came into his line of sight once more as she handed him the cup of medicines from the nightstand.

Without a second thought, a clatter of tiny capsules and caplets littered the floor.

Sakura looked down at her hand that formerly held the cup before she looked at the man and was chilled to her core to see the anger spread across his misleadingly docile face.

She was relieved of her shock by his firm and serious voice.

"Why?" He asked and nearly bit out, and when he did, her stomach sank he realized fears were confirmed. He wished for death, and she denied it.

She responded with silence. A part of her felt a strange guilt, not a feeling she'd received after saving someone's life with the longest and most trying procedure of her life. She had expected gratitude, not hate and anger.

"Tell me why." He commanded, voice now taking an authoritive tone and a deadly edge.

Her emerald eyes found his light green and willed herself to look away but she couldn't, she felt his emotion radiating in those eyes and it nearly made her faint, only a rare few times had she seen intensity so tangible.

After hesitating for a brief moment, she opened her mouth to provide a response.

"I saw you were on your death bed, and I wanted to save you if I could. It's not my nature to leave a man to die." She said, her normal fire taking residence in her eyes. A part of her, right along with him was glowing with an unknown anger, she had poured nearly her very being into saving his life and a part of her was offended she didn't even receive a thanks.

Her sudden affirmation made him stall in his thoughts and resume his calm demeanor.

He took a deep breath he earnestly believed he shouldn't.

"How can you truly live, if you have nothing to live for?" the pale man queried. Sakura was at a loss for words from his question. A bit of her heart tugged at the man's loss of hope. Was he really so gone that he truly believed he had nothing to live for?

"You have something to live for, we all do… It's just a matter of when you find it." She said as she moved away from the bed and grabbed her coat on the edge of the chair before she made her way to the door of the room.

"The hokage will be in to see you soon, and I'll bring you some more medication, you'll need it." She said somberly before exiting the room.

---

Several moments passed before the silence of the room was interrupted by the creaking door opening to reveal the blonde hokage, Tsunade.

She moved without reservation to the side of his bed and sat on the same chair that had once been occupied by the pink haired medic.

Tsunade sized him up for a long while before broke the deafening silence with a question.

"So. Would you like to hear some news Kaguya-san?" Tsunade questioned, a smirk adorning her face. Kimimaro didn't understand why she was greeting him with honorifics, but he decided he would play along.

He noted the malicious tone under her voice and false smile, so he decided to proceed with caution.

"What news would that be Hokage-sama?" Kimimaro asked, the man's politeness taking her by surprise.

She leaned closer to his bedridden body and looked around the room as if she was about to tell him a secret that she'd sworn her life to keeping.

"Well, Kaguya-san… there's no easy way to say this. Therefore, I'll just come out with it. Orochimaru is dead." She said, switching her mode from argumentative to analytical while waving one of the tell tale bloody earrings of his former savior.

To her dismay, the man's disposition remained strong.

"Is that all. He is dead. Did you expect me to become lost, to cry possibly, to validate my weakness to you?" He questioned, the intelligence in his words made Tsunade believe this conversation would indeed be interesting.

"Hokage-sama, I assume I will be held in captivity as an enemy shinobi, will I not?"

"You will, upon recovery." She replied, growing steadily uneasy as the perfectly articulated words fell from his mouth.

"I was willing to die in that clearing. If anyone has committed the crime it was your medic for bringing me here without my consent for treatment further resulting in my imprisonment." Kimimaro argued in a calm and collected manner.

Tsunade sat back in her chair and let the familiar smirk grace her face once more.

"So you mean to tell me, because we brought you here and your life saved, you shouldn't be held in contempt and imprisoned?" She asked, turning the tables on his already poignantly stylized argument.

"I said no such thing. I stated it was your medic that brought me here, and that I would be imprisoned." He corrected. "We are all shinobi, Hokage-sama, you know this very well. We are instruments to a country, we follow our orders without question. Do you not expect this of your own shinobi?" He asked, posing a valid question.

"I do expect that, however Sound has been a severe and hostile threat to Konoha therefore the presence of one of its elites cannot be overlooked." She said.

"Then do with me as you wish Hokage-sama. You know, I could have killed your medic when she helped me to sit. I didn't , because it is not in my nature. I do not thrive to kill, I do not thrive for vengeance, and I do not crave power. I have no purpose, so why would I act of my own accord when I don't know what drives it?" He questioned. The depth of the man startled her. He was incredibly articulate and polite, but inversely of this, he was one of the darkest souls she'd seen.

She believed the sincerity of his words, and her heart broke for the man. She internally wondered how a person could have no purpose. How would she feel if she was not Kage, if she didn't have to honor the memory of Dan and her little brother? How would she feel if she didn't know her place in life?

The answers to those questions were all do dark, vague, and bottomless, as she couldn't begin to offer him empathy.

"Tell me Kaguya-san. Have you really given up on life so much?" She asked, begging the answer to be a negative and void out the intensely sad words he'd muttered so she wouldn't feel guilt for punishing the man.

"Hai" was his only reply, and with that, the Hokage who had been known as many things; a legendary sannin, a legendary medic, and a woman possessing legendary strength did something within her nature, but known only to those who had the pleasure of knowing her well.

She stood from her chair and embraced the man who could impale her and send her to demise with a simple flexion.

She tried to comfort him, she had heard the tales of how he had been raised and figured he had always been left to repair himself. She chalked the action up to the fact it was a part of her repressed motherly instincts that she'd never used.

She couldn't make him have a reason to live.

She couldn't make him accept the fact that life had given him another chance, but she could do everything in her power to sway him in that direction.

Kimimaro had been shocked by human contact for the second time since he had regained consciousness. He felt warmth from the woman, as he had felt warmth from the medic. His eyes opened over her shoulder and took in the view of his first sunrise.

_Why do they care if I live or die? I am a threat to their village, yet they offer medical attention._

_I am a threat to their very beings yet they embrace me._

_Why is it that I've never believed in fate, any kind of God but I can't help but wonder that there is something beyond coincidence in this series of events?_

_Why do I feel so completely lost, but this odd feeling accompanying it that I simply cannot place… a feeling perhaps that some purpose will come about for me?_

He was a man absolved, a man reborn. He would find a purpose of his own to fulfill.

The departing words of the medic reciting themselves like a brilliant sonata in his mind

_**"You have something to live for… we all do, it's just a matter of when we find it."**_

He closed his twenty three year old eyes and relished the warmth of the person so close to him, and for the first time in his life, he felt what one would call comfort, and he welcomed it with open arms and one eye open.

(A/N: Okay, so I know Sakura and Tsunade could be considered OOC to some people, I don't particularly think so. Sakura strikes me as gentle while working, and Tsunade exudes a motherly quality I needed to embrace. If you think its OOC, fine, but no flames, it's condusive to the story, I swear. This was an important chapter, and the fic will mostly be about his quest to repair his soul and the people who help him do so. FYI, he's not getting off the hook so easy… You guys know how I am with my dark matter… As always, thank you all for reading, and please review and let me know what you thought. )


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay ladies and Gentlemen, I'm so sorry for my forced hiatus… I swear it was not my intention. Basically my personal life exploded in my face then went up in smoke. But now that's all taken care of and I can resume my more enjoyable hobbies.**

**So without further adieu, here is the fifth installment of To Walk in Fates Garden. I hope you enjoy and find it worth the wait. I will be updating my other works as well and will most likely convert to a monthly basis… but they will be monster updates.**

_**To Walk in Fates Garden- Chapter 5**_

After the Hokage released Kimimaro from his second embrace since the inception of his memory, he felt his body gently coaxing him into a slumber.

He let his head fall to the soft expanse of the pillow and his eye lids closed ushering him into an unfamiliar darkness he'd not experienced, a shade of darkness that relaxed him and settled his constitution.

As Tsunade stood, she was able to see the last bits of his consciousness leave his sea foam eyes. She removed her hair from the tight pony tail it had been in for some time and shook it loose as she left the room.

Her pronounced heels clicked down the white tile flooring as she made her way to her apprentice's quarters. Normally she would have sent Sakura home after such a taxing procedure but she advised her that she needed to have a few words with her.

The door of the moderately sized office was cracked only slightly so the Hokage pushed the door further open to reveal her pink haired apprentice, who reminded her entirely too much of herself, sleeping on a stack of medical journals on top of her desk. What made the sight even more pathetic was the view of only the top of her head paired with the small hand gripping one of the standard issue hospital pens which hovered dangerously close to a piece of paperwork she was sure she'd have to review.

Moving carefully as to not wake the sleeping woman, Tsunade entered the office and procured a seat across her modest desk in one of the two guest chairs. She couldn't be mad at the young woman, there were many times Sakura sat in silence for what one could consider hours while tsunade slept off her bits of exhaustion brought on by too much work and warm sake.

For a moment the elder woman, who didn't appear to be such an elder, took in the surroundings of the room. On the bookshelf were dozens of volumes of current medical encyclopedias and journals decorated with a few personal pictures ranging from her and Ino, to group photos consisting of all those Genin she had first met when she returned to Konoha.

For the most part, the office was well kept, tidy and organized. Everything fit in a predestined place. There was even order to the stack of journals. That was the main deviation between Sakura and Tsunade, Sakura was orderly by nature and Tsunade had to work for it (or make Shizune work for her organization)

She saw the young woman's' hand jerk sending the pen into her chest. Sakura immediately startled awake and began spewing apologies at her mentor.

Tsunade laughed in good spirits and shot her a knowing smile.

"Morning sleeping beauty" she said, to which Sakura assumed a deep blush for being caught sleeping in her office by her boss. She smiled at her boss before she began an exaggerated stretch followed by a dramatic yawn.

"Ah, you know… not everyone sleeps after sake…" she retorted with a joking wink at her mentor.

"Good one Haruno, I bet you want me to get on with this so you can get to your bed am I right?" Tsunade asked. The bare bones of business evidenced in her voice.

"It would be nice, but what's the point when I have to come in again in… oh what is it? Six hours?" Sakura joked, since her induction into the medical world, long shifts and little spells of sleep had become much easier to handle.

"I can push your shift back three hours but I need a supervisor here. So that would give you nine hours! I'm so generous." she joked.

"I need you to do me a favor Sakura, and you are the only person I would ask this of." Tsunade said tone serious.

A fine pink eyebrow rose in query.

"I need you to run the hospital for a week. With the destruction of Oto, the Kage of the Shinobi Nations are gathering in a neutral area to speak of re-structuring alliances. I, as Hokage must go. This is a great political opportunity and we'll have a substantial amount of negotiators leverage as Konoha single handedly eradicated Sound."

"I will do it Tsunade-shishou" Sakura replied.

"That is not the only thing, Sakura… This one is going to be more, taxing for lack of a better word. Are you listening?" Tsunade asked.

Sakura bowed her head in affirmation.

"I will be sending Kaguya Kimimaro to a detention cell where he will stay until I feel he is reformed if he chooses to or not. Under normal circumstances I would execute him. There are reasons why I kept him alive. Reasons that are shameful as a person to have but as a leader he is an opportunity." with the close of the sentence, tsunade let out a deep sigh that further rose question in the younger woman.

"I would like to see that man reformed Sakura. It pained me deeply that you lost Sasuke as I lost Orochimaru as a younger Shinobi. Not only does the thought pain me, the fact we cared for an enemy within the gates of the Village is a taboo that would not only be frowned on by the villagers, but other nations as well. The whole politics thing is something completely contradictory to our nature as medics' sakura. You're supposed to think of the whole rather than a singular, when a single person is just as important. I mean, all the whole is at the end of the day is a group of singular people. So where would the whole be if it weren't for each person individually? They won't look favorable on it because we saved a man's life that was on the verge of death, they will look at the politics, the black and white. I saved an enemy within our gates." Tsunade finished with another sigh and a significant weight forming on her brow.

Sakura sat back and took in her mentors words. It was rare she'd partake in deep conversation with the woman but the rare instances she did were welcome occasions.

She was given two tasks completely in her hands during her Shishou's absence. Run a hospital, which would be easy enough. She was head physician most of the time regardless so there couldn't be that much more to operations, and she had the invaluable specimen known as Shizune.

The more perplexing, daunting task was the issue of reforming a prisoner. Which generally is not a difficult thing to do itself? A solid and valid concern rose into the front of her mind.

_How do you reform someone who has no will, who has been through a lifetime of suffering already, and who by all admissions has nothing to live for?_

"Now Sakura, I know you are more than capable of doing this so don't let the gravity of the situation deter you. Take it step by step, prioritize and don't let anything explode and we should be fine." Tsunade said as she rose from the chair, making her way to the door.

"I'll be leaving in two days. Rather than shifts at the hospital, I'll need you to ready the detention cell behind the book case in my office. He should be well enough to be transported before I leave."

And with that Tsunade exited the office leaving sakura to her own devices and her impending thoughts on how to run a hospital and how to give a man purpose when he doesn't covet one.

_**(AN: Okay so that was it. I hope you liked it, well let me know what you thought by way of… Reviews!! Writing again is like therapy. I hope this explained motivations a little bit better. I got the Tsunade is OOC a lot. If she wasn't compassionate, she wouldn't be in medicine. If she wasn't level headed and able to logic through things she wouldn't be a national leader. So yeah, what about sakura's daunting week… so read the next chap because it's up. Au Revoir! )**_

_**- Broken Mantra (that one damned author who didn't give so much as an FYI when she went on hiatus)**_


	6. Chapter 6

**(AN- Alright, round 2 skirs… Please don't forget to review… they keep me in check ****J**** Also, I want to apologize personally to all the people who have me on author alert… for the flood of junk I just sent to their inbox) this should be a more solid chapter, the last was pretty much transitional… so here it is and do share thoughts and opinions, they are appreciated.**

**To Walk in Fates Garden**

**Chapter 6**

Konoha had been uncharacteristically peaceful since the fall of Oto nearly one week ago.

Much had changed within the walls of the village hidden in the Leaves, some for good, some for bad, but at the end of it all everyone changed from it.

Those who were within those scarred and blood stained walls deep within the earth were still battling the trauma and inner turmoil from the fall of the village hidden in the Sound.

Ino took a seat on her heels by the edge of her carefully cultivated garden that would normally bring her such joy and solice.

She tenderly raised her pale hand and plucked a lone camellia from a small cluster she had growing in the garden.

She rose, steadily and made her way to a destination another familiar Shinobi frequented.

Sitting near the obelisk, looking into it as if it held every answer to every imagineable question in the universe sat Hatake Kakashi.

The loss of a student whom reminded him of so many people and memories shook him violently to his core. He had faith once that his pupil, who had such a natural affinity to ninjitsu as himself would return after exacting his carefully planned and preened revenge. Unfortunately, fate was never generous to him.

A feeling of failure overcame him when he heard word of Sasuke's death and the imperial end of the sharingan. The only remnant of the legendary blood line resided within his own skull where further guilt festered and came to a head.

Emerging from the forest into clearing set aside for the monument of never ending time and memory came Yamanaka Ino, a pale camelia in hand.

Kakashi heard word of the young woman's ordeal with a small child in Oto. He truly empathised with her, but could offer no encouraging words or affirmations. There was no justification in a child being rid of their short lives, even if the harbinger of death was truly just a friend who wanted nothing more than to help.

The butterfly effect, and Yamanaka Ino was a shining example of it. A promise of power, a lone and ambiguous goal rooted itself into a young Orochimaru's mind where ideas of grandeur followed. The third Hokage, tutoring and training Orochimaru, attempting to form him into an upstanding man and honorable Shinobi. Minato, for being chosen over Orochimaru for the position of fourth started the diabolical end to the man Orochimaru and gave birth to a snake. This snake committed atrocious acts in the name of Vengance and Ruin over a selfish goal. For this goal, lives of the innocent were sacrificed.

Just one, out of the many nameless and faceless victims of his wrath was the young boy that Ino encountered. And that one child changed her from a carefree young woman, to a young woman with eyes that could see the world for the beast it could be. So yes, although not directly, and even after his death, the snakes venom continued to course through the veins of the living and breathing infecting it like a cancerous pariah for which there was no cure.

Kakashi's uncovered eye wandered to the blonde now sitting a respectable distance from him. He had seen her change from an arrogant girl with natural ability and a blood line trait to a woman who could keep her own with the best Shinobi. The death of her former mentor, Asuma toughened the heart of the young woman as well.

He found it rather unjust the air of pain and loss hung heaviest over two of the best kunoichi that came from he and his good companion's tutelage.

She laid the white flower on the base of the monument before sitting completely back. She paid no mind to the man beside her, she just sat with a far away look in her clear blue eyes and let the weight of the world remove itself from her narrow shoulders for the few moments she could sit at the base of the memorial and repent for everything she had done, and shouldn't. for everything she could have done but didn't. and for the things she should do but wouldn't.

It was a difficult thing to witness for Kakashi, anther person found solice in a stone just like himself.

No words were spoken, for they didn't need to be. They weren't there for sociability, they were there to remember, and memories are best collected in silence.

True to her word, Tsunade allowed Sakura to come in for her shift three hours later. Granted, Sakura had to stay the three hours later at the end of the night to make up for it, but this was a small price to pay for a solid block of sleep in her bed.

Her shoes clicked rhythmically as she moved from room to room, checking charts and evaluating patients. She was a naturally compassionate person which helped her copious amounts as a physician.

After her sweep of the third floor patient's rooms she made her way to the ER where the pseudo-prisoner of Sound was still being kept.

So far, Kimimaro had been in a state of sleep since the day after his surgery. This was normal, his body had been taxed for years and with the additon of a strenuous surgery this was a logical outcome.

She entered the room to find him sitting upright in the hospital bed, IV's hanging limply from his relaxed arms as he took in the view of the sunlight radiating from outside the window. Slowly, his seafoam eyes made their way to the rooms visitor.

He dignified her with no response, no greeting, just took note of her presence and resumed his sightseeing of the world on the other side of the glass.

Feeling slightly tense with the blatant dismissal, she felt it necessary to try and start a conversation.

"how are you feeling this morning?" she questioned, obviously unsure of how to handle the overtly quiet man.

He peeled his piercing gaze from the window once more and made eye contact with her before replying.

"fine." was all he said, and just as fast as he'd turned his attention to her, he directed it at it's prior target.

Growing irritated with the man's indifference and lack of simple personability, she moved to the edge of his bed and attempted to find what had his attention so enraptured.

Her careful eyes glided quickly across everything, a treeline, roofs of homes, children playing in the streets, small gardens, pets, clouds… nothing spectacular like a light display or twelve legged men.

"what is so interesting?" She asked, not really expecting an answer but figured it would be worth a shot.

"what is not interesting?" he questioned as he gestured to the window as a sign that all of it bore some significant interest with him.

Unknowingly she shot him a confused glance to which he closed his eyes and attempted to speak once more.

"the people. Enjoying each other's company on an ideal summer day. The dogs in the street, running with out abandon, unrestrained by the things we as humans are bound to. Children laughing as children should do, or so I've heard." he said before stopping and visibly tensing.

Resuming her role as medic, and to allow the man an opportunity to escape the awkward thought he'd inadvertently shared, she stood and moved to his side while brushing the uneven white hair from his neck and examining his stitches.

"looks like you're healing nicely. That's a good sign." she said as she tried to place the partially long, partially cut, and partially shaved hair back in place. When she noticed her efforts were for naught, she spoke again.

"how about we get you a haircut? I can do a standard issue cut, nothing fancy but it will get everything one length. What do you say?" she asked with a picaresque grin equipped, hoping he would capitalize on her offer.

"why?" was his response, and Sakura found he was the king of answering questions with more questions.

"well, because your hair isn't even. And it wouldn't hurt to have a change you know? " she answered.

Kimimaro shut his eyes and contemplated the answer he would give shortly.

"do as you wish." he said before returning his gaze to the window. For truth, he didn't care one way or the other, just as he didn't care if he died or lived.

A smile cracked on the young woman's face as she grabbed a pair of medical scissors and cut the strand of red beads from his hair.

the first step in his recovery was a change in appearance.

She ran her hands through his white hair as she stood it on end and snipped all but an inch and a half of length from his head. She found that his hair was surprisingly thick and stood on end without any assistance.

Five minutes later sat Kaguya Kimimaro in a hospital bed in Konoha, slowly rehabilitating with hair six inches shorter than it had been when he'd gotten there.

After sakura cleaned the hair from the room and readied herself to exit, she left Kimimaro with these parting words.

"You know, if you hurry up and get better I can take you to the courtyard of the hospital. It will have to be at night for now until Tsunade gets back, but it's nice to just sit out and breathe. Well, buzz me if you need anything. I'll be the only person who will come in here." Sakura said as she exited, leaving a smile and closing the door behind her.

Her words left Kimimaro vaguely confused.

He didn't need assistance nor permission to go outside, though his body, still taxed ached and reminded him otherwise.

Laying back in the white hospital bed, he allowed his eyes to close once more while his mind contemplated the thought of being without restraints, of being able to be in the light at his will.

The thought warmed a part of himself that had long since been dormant if not undiscovered.

Sakura made her way to the office of the woman who encompassed so much in her life, a mentor and friend as well as a voice of authority and reason.

The door creaked open slightly to reveal the Hokage Tsunade sitting at her desk writing reverently upon a piece of parchment.

Taking note of the presence in the room, she looked up from her scroll of duties and offered a kind smile to the girl whom she had adopted as her own daughter.

"he's healing nicely Tsunade, I'd like to take him outside… at night of course, just in the courtyard, but not for a while of course. But that is with your permission." Sakura propositioned timidly, she knew not how to ask this of her mentor, the man was a criminal though something in his deeply, and obviously pained soul cried out to her.

Tsunade's blonde brow quirked as her mind rolled over the question posed to her.

"Why do you ask to do this? He's very ill at the moment, and given the fact he is a S-Ranking criminal you must understand the reservations I've got concerning your request." Tsunade stated, confident her pupil would understand her position and not press forward.

"I understand Shishou, but I would only do it once in a while, just in the courtyard of the hospital at night much after the patients have fallen asleep." Sakura pressed further.

Tsunade understood this was a request that would be rebutted and countered to everything she said, but she had a stance to maintain, she couldn't risk further turmoil among the nations should they find out Konoha was administering care to an enemy.

"Sakura, the fact this would be at night would be better but do you understand the ramifications if someone should see him and kami forbid realize who he is and where he's from. I'm sorry Sakura but this is something I simply cannot grant." Tsunade said before dismissing the conversation by picking up her pen and resuming her careful script upon the parchment.

"But Shishou. Forgive my persistence, I've cut his hair, granted it's white but it's different none the less." Sakura offered, hoping the small details would sway her teacher's decision in her favor.

"Sakura I'm sorry, I cannot allow this" Tsunade said placing the pen carefully on her desk.

"Tsunade. You said you want me to rehabilitate this man, and I feel, that as a medic, it would do him wonders psychologically to at least be in an environment other than a sterile room. The man is having difficulties adjusting to well, just… just everything, life especially. And you didn't see the way he views the world outside that window… It's heart wrenching, his eyes so cold but observing everything, the things we take for granted with a kind of beauty and appreciation that you and I are unable to see." Sakura started, voice growing soft with the recollection of the sad and indifferent man.

Tsunade pondered Sakura's words carefully. The words made sense to her as a medic, however as a politician she still could not allow the request.

She sat in quiet contemplation for a few moments before she was interrupted.

" Tsunade, please. I've seen so many hurt physically, but it's more painful to be scarred emotionally. He's so torn up Tsunade, and I've already lost a tattered and torn friend. You must let me try, at least try, to spare this man in the way I could not Sasuke. Granted a part of me hates him and his memory but he was special to me, Please let me pay his pennance and help this man." Sakura said, tears welling in her eyes. True she was releved at word of Sasuke's death, she couldn't feign indifference like so many.

It was rare Sakura would bring the name of Sasuke from her own mouth, therefore Tsunade knew this request meant more to her, to aleviate her own grief and guilt than to help Kimimaro. Though she could see through her intentions, not those to rehabilitate the broken and once terminally ill man, she saw the potential healing that could come to both of their parts.

She was aged beyond her appearance and wise beyond her years indeed.

Sitting back in the tall chair that served as the focal point of her office, she closed her eyes and weighed on the decision heavily.

She knew that keeping the man isolated in the hospital for any extended amount of time was simply not possible. She also knew that isolation bred terrible things in a person without a compass, a person as lost as Kaguya Kimimaro. She didn't want him to feel resentment, or hate, in honesty she wanted him to rehabilitate.

Placing her folded hands on the desk in front of her, she inhaled deeply and made eye contact with her pupil.

"I will grant your request. Though terms and restrictions are as follows: He is not to leave your side while outside, he is only to go out at night and during brief intervals, he is to dress as a physician, I know it's out of the norm but should someone see him it would be easier to explain his identity as a temporary night shift doctor. And most importantly, Sakura, should he escape, inflict injury, intimidate or do anything out of line with the Shinobi code of conduct for the village of Konoha, he will be executed. And your position will be terminted. Requsts such as these, which bear such unknown and variable consequences always carry the stiffest of punishments." Tsunade said as she analyzed the look on her student't face, she was confident she understood the ramifications should something go wrong.

Sakura, obviously taken back with the declaration of punishment took a few moments to collect herself before thanking her mentor and exiting the room.

As she walked down the now dark corridor, heels steadily clicking against the clean white tile. She smiled to herself, a victory won, but should the trophy tip over, one way or the other, the proverbial sky would collapse on her.

She walked past the front desk and greeted the night receptionist. She was going home to sleep, eat, bathe and partake in the other necessities of living outside of work.

**Okay so that's it for this installment people. I know it's not really a normal work of mine but oh well ya know, progress is progress. You've read it, now please review and tell me what you thought. Let's keep them objective people, I appreciate the reviews saying you like it, but tell me why. I put a lot of time into these and I'd like to have an idea of the pros and cons of it. So that's it for now, I'll update again before you know it. Merci Boucoup J**


	7. Chapter 7

All right, here is round seven, I am not going to give much of a briefing here so do me a favor and enjoy the work. J

**To Walk in Fate's Garden- Chapter 7**

Walking into the cramped apartment felt like walking right into a grave. Nothing warming to welcome her, nothing comfortable enough to satiate relaxation. There was nothing but a bed, dresser, couch and table.

She found that investing funds into something she would rarely see, let alone appreciate was completely ungratifying.

She kicked her sandals off at the door and made her way to the basic tan couch taking up most of her small living room.

She sat and reflected on the day as she always did. Thinking about ways, she could preen her habits at work to make her more efficient, in ways to make her more like a machine and ever less than a human.

Her head was never out of work, she always thought about things she could do to help others.

It was long ago she abandoned any kind of a social life.

A soft knocking came from her door and as she reached to answer it, it opened of its own accord and revealed her best friend. The emphatic blonde from her youth.

Sakura hadn't seen Ino since their return from the mission at Sound. She could tell in an instant that something had changed her friend. Where warmth once radiated, a chilling pierce was met.

"Oh my god, Ino what happened to you" the physical manifestations of trauma etched across her face in the shapes of dark circles, far away eyes and a slightly noticeable weight loss.

"Ino. What happened" she prodded further as her question was met with silence.

The blonde opened her mouth slowly, never tearing her gaze from the wood flooring of her friend's apartment.

"Just let me stay here for a little bit. Somewhere I can't see the faces." she said as she sat fully erect on the quaint couch. Sakura followed her friend and squatted to meet her eye level.

"Ino please tell me what I can do to help you." she pleaded as tears began welling that spurred from unknowing, and an ever-present air of being powerless against the plight she met.

"I'm done being a Shinobi." Ino cut out, resentment dripping from her melancholy sweet voice.

Sakura met her with a puzzled expression. The words she wanted to say left her and all she could do was sit and wait for the woman to elaborate.

"You don't know what I saw… you don't know what we… THE NATION did to those people… even if a person is a bastard, they don't deserve to be slaughtered… that's what it was, a slaughter… they killed all of them, laid waste to an entire village of people who were held there against their wills… these people within these walls are sick… some were laughing while they massacred the sleeping, the weak and the ill… I can't look at anyone the same way… when I see them, I see their masks, and when I see those I hear those sick laughs and those sad and agonizing cries and screams… that Sakura… Is why I will no longer be a Shinobi. I will not raise my hand for a country that fosters this… I killed a child Sakura; I killed an innocent child who had a death sentence since the day he was born. I took his life… I was his harbinger, that's all and I hate myself for it. I never want to be happy for what I did to him." She cried out tears freeing themselves from their overworked lids.

Sakura was stupefied by the monologue spewed by her friend. She tried to reason that she was blowing it out of proportion but there was too much passion behind it, for it simply to be dismissed. She knew some take joy in death, but not to such a degree, something as deranged as killing the defenseless.

She saw the pain at the recollection of horror in her comrade's eyes. She knew this was hell for her softhearted friend.

She never experienced this, this facet of the Shinobi lifestyle, she hardly engaged in combat but did take lives… she wanted to say she could understand what her friend was going through, but she couldn't, one of the things a medicinal book could not enlighten her to.

Ion's false bravery broke in a bevy of tears and apologies that fell on the ears of those who could not hear them. The pain, the grief and the conflict was enough to move Sakura to tears herself.

Therefore, sat two young women, drowning each other in their memories and pain, yet somehow pulling the other up in the process.

Because what is a friend who cannot take your pain and make it lighter?

Ino slept on Sakura's couch that night and when Sakura woke to start her morning rituals, she saw her friend was gone. Perhaps she received all she needed in that time they cried, that time they reverted to their childhood where the subject matter was more positive.

That night brought memories of a pain that wretched Sakura's heart to the core. The recollection of an ally and a person she once admonished her love.

She wondered how he died. If it was quick, if he suffered, and the fact she contemplated these things nauseated her. She didn't want to think such thoughts no matter how true they were.

She heard word that Naruto killed him.

Shortly after he returned to the village, he accepted an extended mission in Suna. Apparently doing that was more than the normally lighthearted man could handle. A part of her didn't want Naruto to be the one to take his life, but she figured fate as such and expected it.

She pulled her shoes on her feet and walked to the hospital with a heavy heart. No matter how strong a person is with the veil of ignorance, when light is shown upon it the cracks become achingly visible.

The heavy white door of the lonely ER room swung open to reveal her patient, the last remnant of the country that was Oto sitting much in the same position as she had discovered him yesterday morning, peering out the window, a glass covered eye and stiff body.

"How are you this morning?" She asked, feigning optimism and everything she was not at that moment.

He turned slowly to meet her person in the room, shut his eyes and turned back to the window.

Something about his indifference made her inner constitution boil, after the horror story as recollected by Ino, this man should be groveling, kissing her feet, and singing the praises of Konoha from the very bottom of his lungs and so hard when he exhales he coughs.

But this man,

He was doing everything opposite of this. He looked at her with resentment; she could tell and would simply go back to his careful observation of the room, and the living lying feet away from the glass. She couldn't blame him for feeling this way.

He had been ill since his memory could grasp and when the very first ray of relief was offered, it was snatched from him.

Shaking her head for allowing herself to vent to her interior about the man she thought she would try and just…. Interact with him. A basic human function.

"How about we get you up and walking around a little bit?" she asked, a sincere smile spreading across her pink lips.

Without so much as a word, he rose unassisted from his bedside and made his very slowly to her.

For a sickly man, he towered above her and he moved with the grace she'd witnessed in that build of him she made in her head.

As he neared her, the soft steps echoed hauntingly though the room. If it could be described, it would be the sound a ghost would make if they could manifest and walk. In her mind that was what he was, a ghost of a person that never was.

His soft sea foam eyes locked on her with sincere intensity.

"When will you take me there?" he asked, a tone in his voice she'd never heard from any person before.

His sudden talkativeness made her thoughts stall.

"Where?" she asked, puzzled and confused.

"Outside these walls, or was that a farce to gain my cooperation?" he questioned, his voice abandoning the unknown tone and taking in the normal monotone.

Memory jogged, her face lit up and she started to laugh nervously. A trait she had adopted many years ago.

"Ah yes, out side. Well I should be able to take you out tonight after my shift, it will be late but you'll be outside none the less, and it looks like you can move after all" she said emphatically, but her sudden cheer was cut short as she saw the normal stone façade take form again.

Coughing as if to clear her lungs of the uncomfortable air. She put on her best "serious face" and replied to him, in a language he could understand.

"I will take you outside this evening." she said as she made her way to the door, and though her parting words were serious and borderline intimidating, she still left him with a sincere smile.

(Okay, so that's seven… let me know what you thought. WOW, there is going to be more scenery than a bland hospital room! Amazing! Anyway, I should have the next update out shortly, I don't know why but World of Warcraft has completely overrun my life…. It's as if my life's motto is "one more instance… just one more quest…" goes to show what kind of a social life I've got. Oh well, please do review and let me know what you think. I know this is SO far off canon it's ill but I'm having a good time writing this.

Audios!


	8. Chapter 8

Seconds turned to minutes,

Minutes to hours,

And before he knew it, the sun found its way deep beneath the earth.

He stirred restlessly, sitting on his familiar perch gazing outside the window-watching fireflies dance behind their screen. A strange feeling welled within him, he couldn't put words together to eloquent it but he knew he couldn't be outside the sterile room quickly enough.

Sakura checked over the last of the patients,

Offered the last doses of medication

And as she pulled off her white hospital issue robe, her shift had ended.

She prided herself on keeping promises, though this one carried much more weight than any other promise made before. There was technically her job, lives and her country at risk over this favor. She had to see this out. Speaking of things beyond his white enclosure brought something to his eyes that words couldn't describe and she wouldn't deprive him of that.

Her white sneakers padded rhythmically against the tile as they drew her ever closer to the prisoner of Konoha and the last remnant of the memory that was Sound.

The door to the room opened to reveal the man, sitting on the bed in much the same fashion as she always seemed to find him. For two in the morning and having this patient still up was cause for wonder itself. She wondered if he ever slept, or if in his mind, there was too much to see to allow such trivial things.

His eyes moved slowly from the window to the woman standing in the threshold of the door.

Words didn't need to be spoken by her except for one, his eyes told her everything.

"Ready?" she questioned, smiling honestly, that she could bring someone something that meant so much. Moments like these kept her in love with medicine. The look of new mothers faces as she handed them their new children, old men recovering from ailments, saving people and doing the best she can.

She handed him her white hospital robe which he held in his hands for a brief moment before slipping his left arm through carefully. While attempting to put the right arm through he winced in pain.

Sakura reached her arms out to help him put the last side of the garment on, much to her surprise, she saw faint stone on his face, and it seemed to have softened but only marginally.

Removing her hands from his now clothed lean arm, she walked to the door and held it open, a gesture to walk through.

Carefully watching her, like a sort of feral animal testing a human who offers it food, he made his way to the door.

Stopping in front of him, Sakura forced his eye contact as she voiced her concerns, and consequences of this favor.

"now listen, I don't mind taking you outside, I really don't but there is much on my head for doing so. All I ask is that you don't escape, don't try and harm another person, don't attack me, and just please don't do anything to draw attention to yourself." she said, eyes voicing a concern that ran deep within her bones.

He shut his eyes and kept them closed as he replied.

"I will do as you say. Just let me be out there." he said so softly she could barely hear him.

The walk down the uncharacteristically dark corridors was a much to long one, laden with much awkward silence.

Feet moved in time, at a labored place for the steadily improving man and soon those feet carried him to a large metal double door with a bright, and almost eerily so given it's current location bathed in darkness.

Removing a series of keys from her pocket, the now nurse carefully turned the lock before examining the patient, the echo of Tsunade's voice ringing between her ears the consequences should anything go awry.

The gentle push of the door welcomed the semi-cool night air into the hallway. His skin prickled, and his hair stood on end when it met the sincere chill of a night. This 'coolness' was much different than the climate of the icebox of a hospital room, this air moved, it had life and it nearly moved through him, or so it seemed.

Without waiting for her direction, his feet carried him to the threshold. His eyes transfixed on the things he normally observed through his room but for some reason, know he could reach out and touch it if his heart so desired made everything more appealing.

His unclothed feet touched the cool of the sidewalk as his gaze fixed upward to view a star laden black sky.

For several moments, he took in the view, etching every detail into his memory. Every leaf that swayed, every sound made by the night's wildlife, every delicate scent carried on the wind for his nose's judgment.

From her station at the threshold of the door still, she hadn't moved, she just saw the way it seemed like his entire aura reacted to the night. Even in her opinion, it was a beautiful night, one not seen often in her native Konoha.

His knees, not accustomed to the memories he had of movement, both sustaining and the act of, gave out on him and he faltered, landing squarely on the ground, knees underneath his body.

Without a moment's hesitation, Sakura came to his side and attempted to help the man to his feet. She had been braced for an objection, but none was received. Instead, he stood carefully, knees still shaking from their irregular strain and stood at her side.

"let's get you to the bench." she said warmly, the first time she had put a sincere tone to anything she had said lately.

Without hesitation, they moved in a careful and timed rhythm to the bench in the middle of the hospital courtyard.

He sat, unassisted and took in the sights of the garden, the area that he was not able to view from his windowsill perch.

There his eyes met the night-darkened hues of flora native to the land as well as other plants that had been cultivated and cared for so they could live.

That is what he felt like, as if he was being cultivated. He wasn't much for wanting sympathies, he honestly didn't know what they were, but the feeling of knowing that someone 'warm' would come to see him at least daily made his constitution to recover stronger.

It is true that death was something this man had coveted. But even though he was not a socially capable man, he was able to see the human nature of things develop.

His eyes found a delicate mimosa petal drifting along the night much like the one he saw with what he believed to be his dying vision.

He knew that was in fact his harbinger.

A flower, the bringer of death and change in a cold person, a person who knew nothing but dark.

His thoughts now racing through his mind, as if a light bulb clicked on, compelled him to speak a simple sentence that his guest may not understand, but would hopefully listen to his tale someday and get the strong meaning behind that bloom.

"I died once when I saw that flower…" he said, his smooth voice trailing off into the clear night.

It is true that he had died that night, though not physically, the person he had been was left there in the clearing outside of Oto to haunt those murderous grounds.

The soul in the body now, to be cultivated and made into something that would give the same meaning to someone else.

-- Fin--

Wow, so much shorter than I thought it would be… Sorry about that, I just didn't want to dilute what I was trying to get across with a long and drug out dialogue. Sometimes the most profound sayings are nothing at all. There is a lot of imagery and double meaning in this, and I hope the work has been appreciated. In all honesty, I kind of fell in love with what was to be the 'side-story' I love the anguish that Ino was going through, and while I'm in this psychiatrist mindset, I'd like to address it with a little more feeling. But I felt this start, was integral to where i'm going with the post-traumatic development of Ino as well as a spiritual rehabilitation for Kimimaro. So yes there will be more, just a different name but picking up where this left off.

So this may be the end of To Walk In Fates Garden, there will be a branch from it. And I'm sure I'll revisit the regulars, make it dark and then hopefully have a ton of reviews.

I just wanted to also say that I've gotten so much positive feedback from this fic. True it doesn't have as many hits as my others but I feel the quality of the reader is much more present in this one (no offense) I know I had some grammatical brain farts, but I was really just trying to get my thoughts out.

So thank you to everyone who has read, and look at this a KimiSaku story that actually got finished.

Until next time - B. Mantra


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